If the Government has its way, we’ll all be driving electric cars (EVs) soon. One of the concerns of drivers though is they might run out of battery power so the provision of chargers is of key importance in driving acceptance of electric cars.
There is clearly a big potential market for chargers, not just in homes but also in public places, at office car parks, supermarkets and other venues. One of the providers of chargers is Pod Point Group (PODP) who recently undertook a public stock market listing (IPO). The prospectus they issued (see link below) gives a very good overview of the market for electric vehicles and the charging infrastructure in the UK.
Pod Point was founded in 2009 and has installed over 100,000 charge points mainly in the UK. There are government grants available (OZEV) for home installations although those are likely to be withdrawn or altered from 2022. The government is also funding from 2022 large on-street charging schemes and rapid charging hubs across England. Meanwhile car manufacturers are focussing on production of new electric only (Battery Electric Vehicles – BEVs) and hybrid models. Some 6.6% of new vehicles sales were EVs in 2020 and by 2040 it is estimated that 70% of all vehicles on our roads will be EVs.
Chargers fall into two main categories – AC and DC with the latter providing more rapid charging. Home charging is typically via slow AC because UK homes do not have 3-phase electricity supplies. There are several different connector types. Pod Point estimate they have 50-60% of the UK home charge points and 29% share of public installations. But there are a number of competitors include BP Pulse. Petrol station forecourts are one location where chargers are being installed but it is unclear where the dominant charging location (home, office, etc) will be in future.
Those people with homes with no off-street parking will need to charge at public locations unless viable “pavement” chargers are developed. London-based Connected Kerb plans to install 190,000 on-street chargers by 2030.
Pod Point owns some installations under commercial arrangements with venue locations and that includes 396 Tesco sites where slow chargers are installed. Is that to encourage shoppers to spend more time in the store while their vehicle is recharging one wonders?
Pod Point doubled its revenue in 2020 and more than doubled its revenue in the first six months of 2021, but still made a large operating loss. The market cap of Pod Point at the time of writing is about £380 million.
How the market for the provision of EV chargers will develop is unclear and there are the usual numerous risk warnings in the prospectus. Government interference in the sector is clearly one risk and when a market is growing rapidly there are often folks willing to plunge in regardless of short-term profitability. The big oil companies are also moving into the sector and might provide significant competition.
An example of the problem caused by misguided Government interference in free markets is the collapse of Bulb which is apparently going to cost £1.7 billion to keep it afloat and ensure customers remain connected to gas supplies. It could be more if the market price of gas continues to rise. The cost to the Government will mean it is one of the largest bail-outs they have had to provide since the banking crisis in 2008, and they are unlikely to get their money back in this case.
As for most IPOs I will be avoiding investing in Pod Point until the company is clearly profitable and its market more established but the company has certainly come a long way in a short period of time. Trying to forecast the future profitability of Pod Point is exceedingly difficult – there are just too many variables.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )
Pod Point Group Prospectus: https://investors.pod-point.com/prospectus
Re “Pod Point owns some installations under commercial arrangements with venue locations and that includes 396 Tesco sites where slow chargers are installed. Is that to encourage shoppers to spend more time in the store while their vehicle is recharging one wonders?”
And parking tickets after 2 hours or something!!
Not just Tesco. Also Lidl and Sainsburys, and I believe others.
For some of us, Pod Point was a crowdfunding flutter. A reasonable return over five years[1], but the sale to EDF was imposed on us without consent, and many (I should think most) investors would have much preferred to hold until the IPO.
[1] 2015: 8.53p/share – or 6p after EIS relief; 2020: 24p/share.